Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgivukkah!

Every 700 years
or so do Thanksgiving and Chanukah fall on the same day. Which means
that this year is the first time for this rare coincidence. Let's make
it memorable! We prepared for
you a few holiday goodies and tips to make your home and table fragrant
and joyous this season. Also, please note that this coming weekend we'll
be having our fisrt ever Black Friday & Cyber Monday online
shopping event, with 25% off on all orders, with promo code
"thanksgivukkah". Mention it in your "notes to seller" before you
complete your checkout and we'll refund you manually for your order's
worth!

* Bonus: Free shipping on all North American orders that total $200 or more (after applied discount).

Friday, November 22, 2013

Farm Friday: Hops

Not much harvest at the farm in November, and today even the hops were one... But with beer on my mind (not on my breath, I reassure you!) I've pulled out this photo from a couple of weeks back, and am excited to learn a little more about this very weird raw material. Hops are mostly known for their long history (around 2500 years!) use in beer. My first encounter with them, however, was with the Flora Linden custom tea that Inner Alchemy Tea Co. made for my limited edition Tirzah tea way back when. An unusual herb to use for tea. Hops are the female blossoms of Humulus lupulus, an herb that originated in China and traveled to Europe, where it is was first cultivated in Germany, and is now grown around the world (mostly in the 48 parallel north), almost solely for beer.

Hops has medicinal properties, but it is mostly used for making beer: not only as a flavouring agent, but also aids in preserving it. Other herbs that used to preserve fermented barley were dandelion, marigold, heather and more. Hops tops them all in terms of preventing spoilage and has become the main ingredient, giving beer its distinctive bitter taste and tangy and sharp flavour.

I’ve spent this evening researching hops and while most of the online articles focus greatly on its beer-related history, digging in my aromatherapy, perfume and flavor reveals that there is a lot more to discover about this seemingly single-minded herb. Just to scrape the surface, did you know that:
1. The main ingredient in hops is stored in glands inside the strobiles (the “cones” shaped female flowers) and is called Lupulin. It is highly sensitive to oxidation.
2. Hops has the ability to soothes the nerves and relieve tension. Dream pillows stuffed with hops are a sure remedy for insomnia.
3. In herbal and folklore medicine, hops are used for sexual neurosis in both men and women. Hops is also considered an aphorodisiac. Now that gives beer a whole ‘nother dimension...!

Hops shall receive a more elaborate treatment on SmellyBlog over the next week or more, as I discover its unique characteristics both in my library and my lab.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Beer & Chocolate Pairing

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate to be able to attend a Craft Beer & Chocolate Pairing night at CocoaNymph, as part of BC Craft Beer Month. It just so happened to be on a Friday (October 25th, to be exact), and by the time I got home I was too tired to blog about it and had to prepare for my last tea party. But it was a memorable beer night and I took some tasting notes - which is how I am able to still write about what I tasted intelligibly. The event was co-hosted with Lundy from Pink Pints.

All the truffles served were delights no one ever tasted before - either seasonal truffles, or the ones that are part of the steady collection were actually the future-version of themsleves. And I got to tell you: if you liked CocoNymph’s truffles so far, brace yourself for the type of goodness that makes one wax poetic or just swoon on the spot.

Beer no. 2: Sweet Punk Dunkelweizen (Longwood)
Dark brown beer that looks (and tastes) like thin drip coffee. If it does not sound appealing, it’s because it’s not my taste. At all. It also has a very strong coffee, roasted notes, and mocha notes (hints of cocoa).

Chocolate pairing: Melissa, CocoaNymph’s hazelnut crunch truffle, with a whole candied hazelnut in the centre. Nutty, sweet and a soothing honey aftertaste. Great redeeming point for the harsh coffee-beer prior experience. By the way - once this truffle’s recipe was modified, it completed the task of turning the entire CocoaNymph chocoaltes & confections gluten free.

Chocolate pairing: Barnabas the Tortoise, which is a milk chocolate filled with orange brandy ganache and caramel.

Beer no. 4: Pumpkin Pearzen (Moon Under Water)
Unclear, pale golden liquid, looks like unfiltered pear juice. Aroma is spicy and reminiscent of pears and pumpkins simultaneously, but also surprisingly sour and bitter in flavour. Very smooth mouthfeel with hints of spice.

Chocoalte pairing: Prancer, which is CocoaNymph’s first seasonal truffle - a pumpkin ganache that is just absolutely wonderful and gets better every year!

Beer no. 5: Spirit Chaser (R&B Brewing)
A porter made with Sumatra coffee from Salt Spring Coffee Co. Looks like a very dark coffee. Aroma of smooth coffee, roasted beans. Flavour is bitter and sour, just like a too strong coffee.

Chocolate pairing: Ultra Dark truffle, with cacao nibs on the outside. I believe this is a completely new truffle that is not part of the steady collection of truffles yet.

Beer no. 6: Lost Souls (Parallel 49)
Chocolate and pumpkin flavoured beer, which was apparently too much for me. I think by this point I had too much beer! But not too much to form the opinion, that I do not like coffee and beer together, and strangely enough, when it comes to craft beers, I probably lean towards the light and fruity ones. While with “normal” barley beers, I prefer the darker actually.

Chocolate pairing: Illa - the salted caramel truffle that started Rachel in her sweet chocolate path (very similar to the SeaNymph bar, which is what the chocolatiere is probably most known for). It practically goes with everything and enhances everything. Personally, I prefer it with a glass of dark red wine such as Shiraz or Zinfandel.

Interview for LA Story

Please read my no-nonsense interview with Stevie Wilson for LA Story which took place during the FRAGments show in June.

BTW, the dates for my natural perfumery courses in May are as follows:Citrus & Colognes Week (May 19-23)Oriental Week (May 26-30)
Both courses are already 1/2 full. If you're passionate about learning perfumery from theory to practice in a fun environment with students from all over the world, you should sign up now :-)

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Who Wears Who?

Finally, scientists took the time to discover what I knew all along from my "clinical" experience: Our body chemistry enhances perfume's odour. We pick scents based on how they interact with our body chemistry. This is supposed to have some biological functions on choosing mates and what not.

Unlike most mass-produced perfumes on the market, which are designed to interact with paper strips and fabric ribbons - I treat the wearer's skin as the finishing touch to my creations. It is the "last ingredient" - only that it is not added to the vial (most perfumers do not work like Grenouille!) - but serves as the receptacle itself, upon which the perfume will develop and unfold.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Abishag

I can only tell my story, and re-telling it so many years after is a strange way to see how much happened to me since then.

Once upon a time, I was a teenage girl in 11th grade, facing my upcoming mandatory military service and searching for a meaningful and non-violent way to spend those 18 months. I was interviewed for a program in which I would be serving by working with the Archeology Authorities as a tour guide, educator and help with digging in archeological sites around Israel. Practically the whole country is one big archeological site...

My interview with the Archeological Authorities took place in the Museum of Israel in Jerusalem. A wonderful museum that has both ancient artifacts from the never ending archeological digs around the country; as well as contemporary Israeli art, and temporary exhibits of the finest classical and contemporary paintings and sculpture collections that won't embarrass the Louvre and MOMA.
The museums' most cherished collection though is the Dead Sea
Scrolls, which are exhibited in a dark cellar beneath a peculiarly
shaped architectural sculptures of black-and-white - which I later returned to study as part of the program I was accepted into.

However, on the very day of my interview, there was an exhibit about the cosmetics of ancient times. Flasks of roman glass for treatment oils and fragrant yet primitive perfumes of the time were exhibited alongside jewelry pieces, and little pots for cosmetic unguents were displayed next to tiny metal vessels and wants for kohl.

I wandered the exhibit with Orna, a girl I met at the interviewers' waiting room. Even though we were complete strangers, we became instant BFF and were able to talk about the most intimate stuff that we'd probably never talk to our mothers about, maybe not even our best friends. Weird stuff that only teenagers that only just met would talk about, I suppose. Including that very weird boy that I was head-over-heels in love with, and didn't know what to do about that, because for all I could tell we were "just friends".

We talked and talked and looked at the art and antiques, and suddenly found ourselves in the Muesum's gift shop, where a little vial of perfume caught my eye. I was never quite smitten with perfume, they all smelled very grown-up and foreign to me. And I never worn any, except for a strange camphoreous bottle my aunt gave me and which smelled like an old geisha's perfume (she thought it was eucalyptus oil, but I dabbed it like perfume all through highschool), and a solid perfume pot my grandmother brought me from Greece (filled with imitation AnaisAnais perfume, which smelled better than the original...). I opened the vial and it was intense, strange, and compelling. Not like any "perfumey" perfume I've ever smelled on overdressed ladies in weddings and Bar Mitzvahs... This was something else. It was peculiar. It was revolting yet hauntingly beautiful to my very untrained nose. It reminded me of a certain black bug that flocked the lamps in our village home in the summertime - insect pheromone that smelled like green apple but in a very non-edible, grotesque way. I was not sure I was going to like this perfume, but something about it called me...

Orna was surprisingly encouraging: "Try some on! You have to see how it interacts with your skin". How did a 17 year old girl from Yavne know so much about perfume?! I was not sure I wanted to know... We kept our museum tour, and now I was losing myself in a primitive masks exhibit. The African masks cast a spell on me... And surrounded by the fumes of Abishag, the whole experience was nothing short of mystical. Staring at the masks, and looking through their slanted empty eyes, a portal to another dimension of consciousness.... I was in another place and another time altogether. And I remember exactly what she said: "You're afraid to wear it because that will make you a woman". So I bought that perfume. Not so much because I wanted to be a woman. I probably would have much rather-ed not having to bother with girly puberty, training bras and all the other icky stuff and just play with my four brothers. But it's not like I had a choice in the matter. So I might as well move along with this growing up thing, because by now I already did look like a grown-up woman for 3 years now.

It was through this perfume that I discovered who I was - my skin, my
identity, my femininity, my hidden dreams... It gave me the courage to
tell that boy that I love him. Although I've never tried to recreate
Abishag (and probably never will) - I won't deny that this "Biblical
Bouquet" had a profound influence on my aesthetics. Not every 17 years
old girl (and especially not in the 90's) would be drawn to a bombshell
oriental (which is what Abishag is). And it has influenced my early
creations especially, as well as my enthusiastic exploration of vintage
Chypres and orientals and turn of the century formulas; as well as
researching the fragrances of antiquity and exploring in depth what can
be done with these resinous and spicy treasures - frankincense, myrrh,
labdanum, galbanum, nard and oudh (one such exploration is fully
expressed in my Song of Songs).

And grow up I did, and fast. I was mature for my age in many ways, and being in the pre-army course, away from home, on some remote field-school on Mt. Giloh sucked. I missed my high-school sweetheart, which was just a clueless genius musician kid who wanted to play grown ups. He proposed to me on that mountain when he came to visit me - and although I did try to talk him out of it, I made the very silly decision to skip the army, move to Tel Aviv, work and go to university and be a grown-up. And we did get married about a year or so later. It was the greatest mistake I have ever made in my life, by the way. Not because I missed the archeological army service (this was only the second year of this program, and all the girls who participated ended up moving to other army roles, because the program was very problematic). It was a mistake because it's really a bad idea to get merge your life with someone else's before you have the slightest clue who you are - and even more so when your husband is even worse-off than you in that area. But in that vial of perfume, which I have worn all throughout my 11th and 12th grade (and till my 2nd miniature bottle ran out - by which time the perfume was discontinued) - lay the clues to many of the poignant emotions of coming of age: first love, discovery of one's own sense of self, and the hidden seed of potential - all the things you might have become if you chose to go by the rules of what most Israeli 18-year-olds do or don't.

For years I was wondering what it would mean to me to meet it again. I've had a special alert set up for it for many years so I can find it (hopefully) on the internet. I knew it won't be the same to meet it again. Would it be like meeting an old lover - stirring some distant memories, but just not feeling the love anymore? Would I be embarrassed about how could I have ever dated such a loser (or worn such a trashy perfume, to refine my analogy)?

Abishag arrived in my mailbox only 2 weeks ago. And although I can only speak from my very personal view of it, tinged only slightly by my current profession - I can tell you that this little vial is a treasure to me. Not because it is some kind of a perfume masterpiece (it really isn't). But because of what it means to me, and it being the key to a lot of information about myself, that only I can access when I smell it.

Its top notes diminished significantly - so the green apple bug pheromone is quite tame now. It's not as similar to the opening of Private Collection as I remember it (I got a hit of the same note when I first smelled that one). The oily, unwashed-scalp aldehyde C-13 is peeking out less subtley than it did when it was fresh. But underneath it is all the resinous musky goodness that I always loved so much about it. And yes, the dry down is just like Parfum Sacre! I guess my olfactory memory is quite reliable - because the similarities and connections I drew to other perfumes I've "met" along my professional (and personal) journey and quest were accurate.

At the same time, it does not surprise me that only very few people are searching for it (and most of them end up talking to me, because I have mentioned it in several interviews and on my blog). I would not say that you have to smell it. I'm only sharing with you the insights and thoughts of a lady re-uniting with he coming-of-age perfume, which just so happened to be a very obscure, limited edition one that can't be found anywhere (it took me 15 years to find this little vial). But you can definitely find a very similar and far easier to find beauty in Parfum Sacre (if you love the spice and musk) or Private Collection (if you want a more green experience of what the top notes used to be). And if you layer them on top of each other, it comes pretty close. And if you want to be even closer (and pay even less) - get a bottle of Softcare baby soapless soap body wash - it's boils down to pretty much the same scent and I've been religiously using it for years exactly for that reason.

So no, don't go searching for it because it would take you many years to find and by then it will be even more "off" than it is now. This was MY quest, because of all the things it meant to me. You should find your own holly grail to look for, your own story, your own dream.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Film Noir Bar Featured in EauMG 2013 Gift Guide for Natural Beauties

Film Noir Bar (3-in-1 moisturizing bar for bathing, shaving & shampoo) is featured in EauMG 2013 Gift Guide for Natural Beauties.
The bar was created in collaboration with Open Source Soap, a Eugene Oregon based artisan custom soapmaker.Film Noir Bar is made of the "usual" awesome formula of rich-lather soap, with the addition of moisturizing jojoba and castor oils, and nourishing cocoa butter. Perfect for travel, as it will save space in your suitcase, and weigh you down less, and will save you time if you need to go through airport security...

There will be drinks, snacks and homemade holiday cookies :-)
Feel free to bring your friends and pass this invite along!
We look forward to seeing all your smiling faces!
For more info: irit@iritsorokindesigns.com

Thursday, November 07, 2013

Less Is More Sale Thru November 15th

Fall is a time of transition. This time around I am undergoing major
changes to make your online shopping experience smoother, and fragrance
selection online easier and more intuitive.
In preparation for moving the website into a new server and new
operating system - I must pair down my collection to it most beautiful,
most essential and most exciting fragrances.
Help me de-clutter by taking advantage of up to 35% off select
fragrances that are among the ones being discontinued from our online
boutique.
Like the trees around me, I am shedding one perfume after the other and
removing them from the permanent collection. It is a sad yet brave and
necessary step in order to keep the collection easy to navigate in the
shrieking screens of the new millennia. We hope you understand and
continue to support my little perfumery. Now, let the Less Is More sale
begin!
Please note this is a 10-days only sale, and will expire November 15th.

Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Must Read: Scent and the City

"Now modern science is revealing the wisdom of ancient practices".Scent and the City - article in the New York Times explores scent's therapeutic benefits in today's hectic lifestyles. As if you needed a medical reason to wear perfume ;-)
Another favourite quote from the article: "A fragrant city is a clean city". But the last sentence keeps me puzzled: "This powerful source of pleasure could spawn a whole new field of design".
Have you never heard of PERFUMERY?!

Chypre Birds

Oyselets de Chypre ("chypre birds") historically preceded chypre perfumes. Made of a mixture of herbs and resins (labdanum, styrax, calamus) and glued together with gum tragacanth - they were place in homes as potpourri, or burnt for fumigating the space. They became popular in Europe after the crusaders arrived in the island of Cyprus (in the 12th century), and didn't turn into an alcohol-based "Eau de Chypre" till the 14th century - way before Coty's Chypre (1917).

In my Chypre course a couple of years ago, I've tried to retrace the steps of making Oyselets de Chypre based on this very vague information. We've used gum arabic as the binder to put together Mediterranean aromatics such as labdanum resin, sage, dried rose petals, calamus and patchouli. The material was difficult to work with and the gum arabic was not sticky enough to hold the shapes together. So only one student was able to make hers to look like a bird... The rest of the students left their "chypre balls" behind, in much frustration. Such is the life of the experimenting perfumer... Not all formulas work!

2 years later, I've decided to go back to those balls (which, by the way, make wonderful sachets to scent linens, stationary or drawers). I also had some left over powder of the herbs we mixed together before we added the water. I've decided to add a more reliable binder, as well as neroli water and a two other off-beat ingredients: a piece of dried oakmoss lichen, and a crumpled cigar.

Working with the material was like working with wet clay, and smelled similar - wet and earthy, and a little like a wet cigarette. After a bit of molding, it dries on the fingers and personally makes me rather uncomfortable - itchy between my fingers and impatient to get on with the task... So I took a little break before I was able to go through the entire batch of "clay" (I covered the "clay" with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying).

Once I shaped most of the paste into little incense cones, I made one shaped like a bird. Just for fun, and decoration. The incense is a mistake that turned into a happy accident: the oakmoss and tobacco in it really do the trick and make it smell wonderful... Assertive, woody, dry, masculine and smoky in a good way. I wish I could turn this into a perfume. It's kind of like how the moss Poivre Samarcand smells like underneath all the pepper. Truly wonderful stuff, and if my witch doctor is right, the tobacco helps to protect, encourage confidence and push away any negativity you don't need in your life.

If you want to learn how to make incense, you can book incense-cone making workshop with me (up to 6 people), or you can also learn how to make Egyptian Kyphi.

Tuesday, November 05, 2013

New Teas!

At long last, I've re-launched my entire tea collection at the inaugural Vancouver Tea Festival this past weekend - including the long-time favourites Immortelle l'Amour and Roses et Chocolat teas, which were both out of stock for longer than we could tolerate... It's been a long, painstaking process of sourcing, sampling and testing teas and various fragrant botanicals from different origins, comparing them, formulating, tasting and fine tuning my vision for each one of the teas, complete with the tea label design, French translation, and printing... The entire process took 4 years!

Each of the 4 teas in my collection was inspired by a distinctive perfume from Ayala Moriel Parfums' line of all-natural, artisanal fragrances that are handcrafted to perfection from the finest flower extracts in the world. The teas themselves are a blend of carefully selected perfumed teas (read: not-aromatized, but rather fragranced with the real whole fresh flowers such as jasmine, rose, etc.) and further perfumed with top-quality, freshly dried and organic or wild-harvested botanicals.

Charisma tea was Ayala's first tea blend, and the house blend she served only to guests at her West End perfume studio during the summer months, it was blended from fresh lemon verbena and spearmint leaves mixed with premium jasmine green tea. It is now available in its dry loose leaf tea form for your enjoyment year around! Charisma can be re-infused 4 times, and makes for an excellent chilled tea or add a splash of rum and a slice of lime to turn it into a tea mojito!
The tea was inspired by Charisma perfume: a fresh floriental fragrance based on the contrast between cool and warm notes: jasmine sambac, gardenia, tonk a bean, kewda, green tea, sandalwood, spearmint and bergamot.

Zangvil tea was created in 2011, to coincide with the Zangvil fragrance launch and our White Potion fragrant chocolate bar we collaborated on with CocoaNymph (you can read more about our amazing tea party we hosted to celebrate this triple accomplishment). Zangvil is all about ginger - a note that is comforting, warming and sexy. The perfume is a honeyed amber-and-ginger fragrance that is as cozy as a cashmere sweater; and the tea reflects that with delicate silver needle jasmine white tea, infused by rare botanical musk seeds, vanilla beans and of course - crystallized ginger. It can be infused up to 7 times to produce a clear, shimmery liquor that is a delight to all the senses!

Immortelle l'Amour tea is an elixir of love, and full of anti-oxidants yet caffeine free. This rooibos-based tea is perfumed with vanilla bean slices, organic orange peel and Ceylon cinnamon bark. Calendula petals add a stunning visual effect - like threads of sunshine within the beautiful red-maple hue of rooibos. Immortelle l'Amour perfume was inspired by a love story, and the Quebecoise tradition of making Tire sur le neighs (taffee on the snow). It has notes of immortelle, maple syrup, rooibos, cinnamon, orange and an overdose of vanilla. The tea is wonderfully sweet on its own, and can be re-steeped twice (which is very unusual for a rooibos tea!). It is particularly luxurious when served with pure maple syrup, and makes a wonderful accompaniment for a brunch of cinnamon waffles :-)

Roses et Chocolat tea is arguably the most luxurious and seductive of all 4 blends. It also was the most challenging one to blend and took Ayala 4 years to perfect: it required an expert patience and masterful blending of China black tea, rose petals, fine Darjeeling, cacao nibs and exotic spices to create the perfect balance between the smooth, rich, floral and spicy elements. This tea is a message of romance and seduction in a cup. Enjoy this whenever you have a chocolate craving (but don't want the calories ;-) Or if that's not your concern - it may very well be served with a square of dark chocolate or Rahat Loukum (Turkish delight). Roses et Chocolat perfume, which inspired it was originally created for Valentine's Day 2005 as a limited edition. We could not keep it on the shelves long enough ever since. It is also available as a chocolate bar (72% cocoa with rose otto, saffron and chilli, which we've developed with CocoaNymph) and a scented candle made of organic soy wax (designed in collaboration with Gabriel's Aunt).

Friday, November 01, 2013

Vancouver Inaugural Tea Festival Tomorrow!

At long last, Vancouver has its own tea festival! The inaugurual Vancouver's Tea Festival
will take place November 2nd at the Creekside Community Centre (1
Athlete Way) between 11am-5pm. The perfect occasion for me to re-launch
my tea collection: Charisma, Immortelle l'Amour, Roses et Chocolat and Zangvil, which I have been sourcing and developing for the past 2 years.

About Me

Ayala Moriel, the Nose and the founder of Ayala Moriel Parfums, creates natural artisan and bespoke perfumes that are inspired by her deepest emotions and memories from her childhood landscapes of the Mediterranean.